The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) is pleased to recognize as our Volunteer of the Month David Tchack, who works with the Eviction Defense and Housing Negotiation Projects.

Tchack consistently takes cases for monolingual Spanish-speaking clients facing eviction and the complicated legal processes that entails. He is very committed to monolingual clients and reserves available pro bono time to help them. Tchack has been volunteering with JDC since June 2006, after working with the nonprofit Eviction Defense Collaborative.

A particularly dedicated volunteer, he has maintained his pro bono case load even as his own private practice picked up steam.

Tchack found his most challenging and rewarding cases after he accepted the representation of six long-term rent controlled tenants living in the Mission; all were monolingual Spanish speakers.

In 2013, he successfully defended three different eviction cases that were brought against these tenants, and then, again, in 2014, he had to defend them again. On the last case, he won on summary judgment. He then filed an affirmative lawsuit against the landlord, and in short order settled for six figures. The biggest reward for him was handing that check over to his clients after fighting for them for over a year.

An East Coast transplant, Tchack moved to the Bay Area from New York in 1994. He has a particular interest in rent control cases as he himself benefits from living in a rent-controlled apartment in Berkeley, allowing him to keep his overhead down and devote his lawyering to lower income clients.

In his solo practice, Tchack handles cases in eviction defense, immigration and business sales. He makes doing pro bono work a priority in his practice, as it gives him a sense of peace and accomplishment knowing that he has helped many tenants in the Bay Area preserve their homes – especially when he obtains money for them as well.

When he isn’t practicing law, he loves playing music, both piano and guitar. Secretly, he dreams of opening a law office in Puerto Rico, and to that end, he spent three months living in San Juan studying at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, all in Spanish.

Many thanks to David Tchack for his dedication and hard work for eviction defense with JDC.